The Dying Gaul

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying_Gaul

This statue captured my attention as a teenager and I still love it. I have always been intrigued by the realistic look of rather stunned pain --I've always wondered what kind of story this statue might tell if it came to life somehow.

The Dying Gladiator

(from "childe harold's pilgrimage")

I see before me the Gladiator lie:
He leans upon his hand - his manly brow
Consents to death, but conquers agony,
And his droop'd head sinks gradually low -
And through his side the last drops, ebbing slow
From the red gash, fall heavy, one by one,
Like the first of a thunder-shower; and now
The arena swims around him - he is gone,
Ere ceased the inhuman shout which hail'd the wretch who won.

He heard it, but he heeded not - his eyes
Were with his heart, and that was far away;
He reck'd not of the life he lost nor prize,
But where his rude hut by the Danube lay,
There were his young barbarians all at play,
There was their Dacian mother - he, their sire,
Butcher'd to make a Roman holiday -
All this rush'd with his blood - Shall he expire
And unavenged? - Arise! ye Goths, and glut your ire!


George Gordon Lord Byron . 1788-1824  

"Easter Wings" -George Herbert 1633

The Resurrection --John Donne

The  Resurrection (No. 6 La Corona)

Moist with one drop of Thy blood, my dry soul

Shall—though she now be in extreme degree

Too stony hard, and yet too fleshly—be

Freed by that drop, from being starved, hard or foul,

And life by this death abled shall control

Death, whom Thy death slew; nor shall to me

Fear of first or last death bring misery,

If in Thy life-book  my name thou enroll.

Flesh in that long sleep is not putrified,

But made that there, of which, and for which it was;

Nor can by other means be glorified. 

May then sin’s sleep and death soon from me pass,

That waked from both, I again risen may

Salute the last and everlasting day

~John Donne

The Lord is My Light

"The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?"

(Psalm 27:1 ESV)

“Rejoice not over me, O my enemy;

when I fall, I shall rise;

when I sit in darkness,

the Lord will be a light to me.” (Micah 7:8)

My God is a Pillar of Fire,

a light to His people, and

darkness to His enemies

as He was at the Red Sea. (Exodus 14:19-20)

“His lamp shines upon my head,

and by his light I walk through darkness” (Job 29:3)

“because the darkness is passing away

and the true light is already shining.” (1John 2:8b)

And He has promised that

my “life will be brighter than the noonday;

its darkness will be like the morning.” (Job 11:17)

Therefore I sing praises to Him in the night: (Ps 42:8)

“For it is you [Lord] who light my lamp;

the Lord my God lightens my darkness.” (Ps 18:28)

“For with [You] is the fountain of life:

in [Your] light shall we see light.” (Ps 36: 9)

"The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light."

Romans 13:12

"Music with her silver sound"

Where griping grief the heart would wound
And doleful dumps the mind oppress,
There music with her silver sound
Is wont with speed to give redress
Of troubled minds, for ev'ry sore,
Sweet music hath a salve in store.

In joy it makes our mirth abound,
In grief it cheers our heavy sprites,
The careful head relief hath found,
By music's pleasant sweet delights;
Our senses, what should I say more,
Are subject unto Music's law.

The gods by music have their praise,
The soul therein doth joy;
For as the Roman poets say,
In seas whom pirates would destroy,
A dolphin saved from death most sharp,
Arion playing on his harp.

O heavenly gift, that turns the mind,
Like as the stern doth rule the ship,
Of music whom the gods assigned,
To comfort man whom cares would nip,
Since thou both man and beast doth move,
What wise man then will thee reprove.  

~Richard Edwards

Never Weather-Beaten Sail

Never weather-beaten sail more willing bent to shore.
Never tired pilgrim's limbs affected slumber more,
Than my wearied sprite now longs to fly out of my troubled breast:
O come quickly, sweetest Lord, and take my soul to rest.

Ever blooming are the joys of Heaven's high Paradise.
Cold age deafs not there our ears nor vapour dims our eyes:
Glory there the sun outshines whose beams the blessed only see:
O come quickly, glorious Lord, and raise my sprite to thee!

~Thomas Campion

Leave Me Tomorrow

Dost Thou Not Care?

I love and love not: Lord, it breaks my heart

  To love and not to love.

Thou veiled within Thy glory, gone apart

  Into Thy shrine, which is above,

Dost Thou not love me, Lord, or care

  For this mine ill? —

I love thee here or there,

  I will accept thy broken heart, lie still.

Lord, it was well with me in time gone by

  That cometh not again,

When I was fresh and cheerful, who but I?

  I fresh, I cheerful: worn with pain

Now, out of sight and out of heart;

  O Lord, how long? —

I watch thee as thou art,

  I will accept thy fainting heart, be strong.

‘Lie still,’ ‘be strong,’ today; but, Lord, tomorrow,

  What of tomorrow, Lord?

Shall there be rest from toil, be truce from sorrow,

  Be living green upon the sward

Now but a barren grave to me,

  Be joy for sorrow? —

Did I not die for thee?

  Did I not live for thee? Leave Me tomorrow. 

~Christina Rossetti